Letter: We're bailing on New Jersey

The city of Hoboken was hit by the wrath of Hurricane Sandy and endured severe flood damage with 50 percent of the town underwater and no electricity for 85 percent of residents like myself. On Oct. 29, my family of twin 3-year-olds, my husband, my 6-months pregnant belly and I prepared for the worst. By 9:30 p.m. on Monday, it was clear that Sandy meant business. Before there was even any rain, there were already flooded areas near the PATH. We braced ourselves for the brunt of the storm. Within minutes of my girls being tucked in bed, our lights flickered on and off like a buoy bobs in the ocean. Outside, high winds circled, making me feel like I was on a sailboat in the Bermuda triangle during a storm. I hadn't seen the sun in days. Our power was lost on Monday evening, and due to lack of priority and infrastructure problems, it was not restored until Nov. 4.

During the days that followed, I watched my town turn into a war zone, literally. The National Guard was brought in on the following Wednesday for rescue operations. Army, FEMA and Navy came later. Everybody and their grandmother were here to help. Even President Obama visited my home state and met with our Gov. Chris Christie to assess the extensive billion-dollar damages. New Jersey was the stomping ground for utility trucks all the way from Kansas and Arkansas. Yet, in my world of living safely away from the flood zone, we didn't see power for six days. The priority, of course, was for the elderly citizens, those with medical conditions, and those trapped in the dark in flooded apartment complexes.

I've made decisions for the safety of my family and own a condo on higher level ground and trusted that I would never face issues like last week. I have high regard for the efforts of the mayor, the volunteers, and the community spirit coming together in our time of desperation. However, I do not understand how electric subcenters can be located in flood zones, how intelligent adults decided this, and how PSE&G has failed to spend money on putting them in non-flood zone areas. Because the subcenters in Hoboken were damaged by water, this caused several days to pass by in order to fix them and for electricity to partially restore. It is for this reason that I decided my family and I should leave New Jersey for good.

I was born in the Bronx, where I lived until I was 3 years old. My family moved and settled in Bergen County. I attended Rutgers University for my business degree. It will not be a sad day leaving the state. It is sad that the authorities never bothered to plan well and this devastation hit everyone that I know and caused several deaths in our state. It is sad that the government spends billions of dollars on useless wars yet doesn't pay attention to simple measures to protect our own nation. I'm not sure where we'll go, but farewell Hoboken, soon enough.